@old: "<url>
TUESDAY, May 27, 2014 (HealthDay News)  Nearly one in five Medicare
patients are victims of medical injuries that often aren't related to
their underlying disease or condition, according to new research.
The injuries included: being given the wrong medication, having an
allergic reaction to a medication, or receiving any treatment that led
to more complications of an existing medical problem."
    @susan: "x-no-archive: yes
<quote>
At least that many of all ages, just most go uncounted, in my estimation 
and based on my experience.
My mother died from the sequelae of statin medications she never needed 
(as if anyone does).
I acquired serious iatrogenic damage/injuries as well as medical neglect 
since age 12.
And no one has ever been held accountable.
Susan"
    @persistentone: "news:<email_address>
<quote>
<url>
Big Pharma is raping the country by charging unlimited amounts of money for
drugs that we give them monopolies on.   Government's good intentions to
cover medical bills for retired people has been abused by both hospitals and
pharma to the extent that medical care will soon be over 25% of the GDP and
is bankrupting the country.   The government appears to be absolutely
impotent to fix what is broken here, and politicians have less power than
the special interests that are trying to game the system.
more medicines to control, the better.
Any American should be truly sad at what this system has degenerated into.
W"
    @notgood: "<quote>
Just saw a news article in our newspaper about a hospital being fined 
for the 50 million in overcharges to medicare. As Susan has said these 
greedy docs and hospital share holders are bankrupting what was a sound 
medical care system.
I think if they started doing criminal prosecutions for these over 
charges, this crime would be far less common. I would love to see those 
CEOs of the hospital doing a perp walk on television and then getting 
lots of hard time.
Of course this will never happen when it is the CEOs paying our 
politicians to keep things the way they are. This kind of corruption in 
the old Soviet Union was considered treason and was dealt with 
appropriately."
    @susan: "x-no-archive: yes
<quote>
I never said it was sound!
Nor do I think doctors and hospitals are the ones mark04@example.com.
Susan"
    @persistentone: "news:<email_address>
<quote>
I think 80% of the cost problem traces to drug companies and hospitals.
The issue with hospitals is they are able to negotiate compensation that is
almost 300% higher than private doctors.   For example, I saw a specialist
recently who told me the insurance company gives him $150 for a consultation
in the hospital for a patient with kidney failure.   The same insurance
company will pay an HMO like Kaiser, or a large hospital, $450.   The system
is geared towards large entities that can negotiate ridiculous over-the-top
rates.
I recently had a CAT scan at the hospital.   For five hours and one CAT
scan, the hospital billed the insurance $24,000.    What is up with that?
When my uncle was dying of prostate cancer, he was approved by Medicare for
a treatment that cost $150K.   It involved taking his blood serum,
immunizing it, and then re-infusing it.    In studies, that treatment adds
about three months of life.    It had almost no benefit for him, and caused
him very horrible neurological and neuromuscular side effects.   And how do
we explain to the American taxpayer that this drug company can charge
virtually any price it wants for a treatment that extends life three months?
The US medical system simply fails to control costs at the level of the
pharma companies and large hospitals.  Instead, Medicare cuts benefits to
the end users, and increasingly is just picking on small private doctors to
absorb the cost overruns.   The problem is you cannot remove the lion's
share of costs out of the system unless you take on big pharma and big
hospitals and PPOs.   Washington never even tries to do this.
The system is hopelessly broken.
W"
    @persistentone: "news:<email_address>
<quote>
<url>
Medicare
to
led
estimation
needed
neglect
for
and
and
than
into.
the costs dramatically.  Just cause the 'Part D' drugs to be at negotiated
prices.  That could be easily accomplished by simply using the lists and
prices negotiated with the VA.
There are a dozen variations on the same idea.   It all comes down to some
form of price control, which in an environment where you give companies
unnatural monopolies is probably totally okay.
The political problem is the Republicans want "free market" in a place where
there are no competitors and free market economics cannot apply.   The
Democrats don't seem to care about cost containment but instead focus on
expanding coverage.
It's a perfect storm of political incompetence and self-interest.
W"
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